Brandeis Players

The first half of last Monday's concert was a delight; the rest, a puzzle. The Brandeis players produced a more-than-competent performance of Haydn's Trio No. 5, for piano, violin, and cello; and their execution of the other work before the intermission, a Schubert song for voice, piano, and clarinet, was superb. But about Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire," which took up the rest of the evening, it is difficult to be so enthusiastic.

In the Haydn, Robert Koff's violin and Madeline Foley's cello were both excellent. A shade less successful was Martin Boykan's effort on the piano, which seemed at times to drown out the rest of the trio. Keeping the top of the instrument closed was a step in the right direction, but it tended to make the tone a bit on the muddy side.

The Schubert (and here Mr. Boykan was flawless) neared perfection. The blend of clarinet (Felix Viscuglia) and voice (Bethany Beardslee) was a marvel; one wonders, after hearing this piece, why more has not been written for this combination.

Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire," written around 1910 for speaking voice and chamber orchestra, is based on a collection of poems by Alfred Giraud. The mood of the poetry is fantasy (one stanza reads: "As a pallid drop of blood Tints the lips of one in sickness,/ So inherently this music/Tempts destruction of the self"). There can be no doubt that the music is cast in the same vein as the poetry. It is modern composition at its harshest, its most discordant, its most trenchant.

These are, however, observations on Schoenberg, who is somewhat easier to criticize on the basis of Monday's concert than are the Brandeis Players. Schoenberg himself would have been hard put to secure a more rigorous interpretation of the score than theirs. "Pierrot Lunaire" is complex and difficult; the Brandeis performance was smooth and professional.